


Five Seconds

by starboydjh



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - College/University, Bookshop, Everyone Is Gay, M/M, University Student Dan Howell, University Student Phil Lester, and phil's oblivious but it's cute, dan's an idiot who needs a lil push lol, i gave dan glasses in this too, i made dan and phil's friend group all gay because it be like that sometimes, i mean why not right, just because
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 02:56:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18864298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starboydjh/pseuds/starboydjh
Summary: Five seconds in a dusty university bookshop one night is all it takes to change Dan the work study master's student and Phil the PhD candidate’s lives for the better.





	Five Seconds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phloridas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phloridas/gifts).



> this is for the spring fic exchange based on a prompt that Claire gave me - I hope you love this fic as much as I do! big shoutouts to Alexis for being my beta, Rachael and David from PTK for inspiration along the way, and to Mel Robbins for writing the book that has been my own inspiration for this year which gave me the title and concept for this! 
> 
> *all books/series mentioned with their authors and a link to find a locally owned bookshop in your area will be listed at the end!*

“First day and you’re already late, not a good impression, Emily,” Angela chided without even saying hello as Emily fumbled her bike through the door. She looked up at her with a confused look.

“I’m five minutes early,” she panted slightly, letting the door shut behind her. 

“Dan? Remind her,” Angela said without looking back at Dan from where she was perched at the desk. Dan rolled his eyes and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ at Emily before robotically reminding her that according to Angela fifteen minutes early was on time. “At any rate, you’re here which is more than I can say for the last work study student that I had. Go drop your stuff in the back and come on out when it’s time for your shift to start.” 

“It’s fine if I leave my bike in the office?” Emily asked. Angela clearly wasn’t listening, and Dan looked at her and nodded. 

“She won’t care. Jesse does it all the time.” Dan said as he lifted the desk for her to walk behind it and pushed his glasses up at the same time. 

“Yeah, but Jesse’s her son, I’m the random student who was five minutes early but somehow still late,” Emily muttered as they walked past her. 

Dan just chuckled as he opened the door to the office for Emily. “Don’t worry, her hard-assery has a method behind it. Your bike will get all rusted in the rain, and you need a way to get here from the halls, so you can leave your bike back here and she won’t mind.” Dan waited in the office while Emily got all her stuff settled, then followed him back out behind the desk. 

“Okay, welcome to your first day working at Subculture Book Shop,” he said as he plopped himself down into the chair behind the middle computer at the desk. “You’ve been here before so you generally know how things work, you know where all the sections of books are and you know to stay out of Angela’s way as best you can. Have you run a cash register before?” He asked and Emily nodded. “Okay good. I don’t need to show you that. If you ever get lost in here, just yell for me and I’ll come help you. We also have Jesse coming in at some point today and Hannah’s coming in to pick up her check. You’ll get to meet everyone today, and you’ll have an hour break to work on your homework or whatever else. We’ve added a coffee bar upstairs since you were here last year, but the coffee isn’t that good anyways so if you want to walk to Starbucks across the student union I won’t mind. Any questions?” 

“Scale of one to ten how much does Angela hate all of us?” Emily asked with a smirk on her face. Dan laughed.

“A solid six or seven, but she hates us because she says we’re like her children. Now, take a walk around the store, just get your bearings back again. I’ll run the desk for the rest of the night.” Someone walking past the desk caught Dan’s attention out of the corner of his eye, and when he saw who it was his face lit up. “Hey, welcome back Phil.” Phil smiled at him and nodded as he made a beeline for the cafe upstairs.

As Dan sat at the desk, he scanned the shop, admiring all the people huddled over their laptops at the tables. Subculture Books had been around for years, and it was a hole in the wall hang out spot for all the students at the university. The walls were plastered with black and white photos of famous people reading books, and dotted off around the store there was just about every genre of books that you could think of. The other art on the walls was done by the students in the art school, and the business students helped to run the finances for the shop. Tons of people from all walks of life on campus had some kind of connection to Subculture, and to Dan, it felt like a piece of home in a city he’d always felt out of place in. When it had come time to do his work study, there was no question about it, Subculture was where he wanted to be. 

It was partly self-serving of him to work here, because he was always looking for new books to read, and he’d gladly spend half his time sitting behind the desk reading if Angela allowed him to. Lucky for him, Angela looked the other way with Dan most of the time, and he’d sit at the desk with his nose buried in a book for most of his shifts. Right now, he was working through his tattered copies of A Song of Ice and Fire for the third time, and was just getting into one of Daenerys’s chapters in A Game of Thrones when someone dinging the bell on the desk pulled him out of Westeros and back to England. He looked up and pushed his glasses further back onto his nose, Phil standing in front of him with his trademark smile.

“Hey. I got you your usual,” Phil said. “Vanilla latte with almond milk, right?” 

Dan laughed and nodded, hoping that his smile wouldn’t pull out his rosy patch on his cheek. “Yes, thank you. How have you been?”

Phil’s smile as they chatted always brightened Dan’s day, and it was rare that Dan didn’t get to see it. Every time Dan went in the horror section, Phil was always there surrounded by piles and piles of textbooks and spiral bound notebooks. He looked a little older than Dan, by a couple years at the most, and to Dan, he was captivating to look at. His pale white skin looked almost translucent under the lights arranged like constellations in the ceiling, and his dyed hair contrasted with his striking blue eyes. Phil barely seemed to notice Dan’s infatuation with him, smiling up at him briefly before he adjusted his glasses and went back to his sticker-covered laptop on his crossed legs. 

Monday afternoons were always slow, and today was no exception. Most of the time the staff used Mondays as a way to clean up after busy weeks, reshelving returns, taking inventory, and generally using the day as a way to regroup. Today, Dan was on cart duty, and he walked around the shop with the cart of returned books to put them away. He always saved the horror section for last, because that meant he’d get to see Phil. 

He only had one horror book left to put back, but he still saved it for last. It was a Stephen King novel, and the shelf of all of King’s work, of course was directly behind Phil. He tried to get Phil’s attention by clearing his throat a couple of times, and finally after three times he just put the copy of Pet Sematary he was holding on the HP Lovecraft shelf and called it a day. Angela would have his head in the morning if she saw, but Phil looked too engrossed in his work to hear him if he tried again. 

“I saw someone back in the horror section the other day. Is he allowed to study on the floor like that?” Emily asked Dan when he sat back down behind the desk.

“Oh, yeah, that’s Phil. He’s a PhD student now, he’s studied back there almost every day since he was doing his bachelor’s degree. Everyone here knows him. The first couple of months he came here we tried to kick him out after two hours, but he kept coming back so we let it slide. He even dated Angela’s son for a while.” Dan said without looking up from the computer. 

“And Angela still lets him show his face around here? I put a book back in the wrong order on accident when I was doing my bachelors and she banned me from the shop for two weeks.” Emily asked. 

Dan nodded. “Jesse broke up with him. Plus, she said the bookshop felt wrong without him in the horror section, and in all honesty, she was right. It’s weird when he’s not here.” 

“What’s he getting his PhD in?” Emily asked.

“Comparative literature and analytic linguistics. He’s a giant nerd.” 

“Says the person who’s getting his masters in eastern philosophy,” Emily said with a roll of her eyes. 

“Right, like comparative literature is anymore useful than my useless degree is. We’re all paying for an expensive coaster, might as well waste our money on something we’re interested in.” 

Emily nodded towards Dan and wagged her pen at him. “You got me there, although my degree is probably the most useless of them all. Textile design? Useless. I have no idea what possessed me to pick that but it’s too late to go back now.”

The next few months continued as normal, Dan and Phil interacting every day and Dan being too useless to talk to him beyond the polite small talk that they made together. Dan wished so badly that he could get up the courage to talk to Phil more, even just about something simple like his class schedule or his living arrangements- anything that would give Dan a better window into the mysterious PhD student that had stolen his heart without even knowing. 

“I’m too fucking gay for this,” Dan muttered under his breath after he nearly had a heart attack seeing Phil in a white hoodie and his glasses, which earned him a smack on the back of the head with a book from Jesse. “Ow! What the hell was that for?!”

“If my mum hears that you’re being banished to the back for a week and you know it.” He said with a smirk as he sat down. “What are you too gay for this time? Last week it was basic maths.” Before Dan could open his mouth, Jesse waved his hands in front of Dan’s face. “Wait, wait, wait...you like someone don’t you? Who is it?” 

Dan waffled over his words for a moment as he fixed his glasses, trying to think of what to say, but he knew Jesse could read him like the books they sold every day. “One of the customers. A regular. I mean, I know it’s never going to happen but still. I can dream, I guess.” 

Jesse smacked him again, this time with just his hand. “That’s quitter talk and you know it, Dan.”

“How is being realistic quitter talk? What do I say to him, ‘hey I think you’re really hot’? My four brain cells can’t handle that, they stop functioning whenever I see him.”

Jesse rolled his eyes. “Come on, if it is who I think it is, you’ll be _perfect_ for each other. Tonight you should just see what happens. Count back from five and just—” Jesse made a motion that looked like a combination between a push and an explosion. “Go for it. You read the Five Second Rule right? That was one of our staff book club books.”

“I skimmed it,” Dan said sheepishly, avoiding Jesse’s eyes. He saw Jesse going to smack him one more time and Dan laughed, pushing his hands out of the way. “Stop doing that! And I got the general gist of the book, count backwards from five before making decisions, yadda yadda yadda, reap the rewards or whatever. I feel like this is too big to five second rule though.” 

His coworker raised his hands in defeat. “Fine, if you won’t make a move I’ll get Emily to do it for you.” 

“Oh God please no, not again,” Dan groaned with a laugh at the end. “She’s a terrible wing woman.” 

Towards the end of the night, Dan was wandering around the cavernous store putting more returns away when he needed to go back to the horror section. Phil of course was still there, his face slightly blushed from being bent over his work for so long. Dan pondered that sitting hunched on the cheap carpeted floor couldn’t have been good for his back while he put away some of the books, and as he was staring at Phil, his butterfingers acted up and he dropped a hardcover book right on top of Phil’s head. 

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry! Are you okay, did I break your glasses?” Dan babbled, feeling his own face heat up as Phil looked up at Dan with a small smile on his face. 

“No worries, my glasses and my head are fine.” Phil said as he turned the book over in his hands. “Hey, Haunting of Hill House, my mum loves this book. She used to read chapters to me and my brother when my dad was away so he wouldn’t find out.” 

Dan chuckled as he took the book back from Phil and put it away. “Is that why you sit in the horror section?” 

Phil laughed a little and shrugged. “I mean kind of, I’ve always loved horror novels. Plus, this section of the store’s cozy. No one bothers me over here.” 

Dan nodded and turned back to the section in front of him. “Are you sure you don’t need a table or a chair or anything?” 

Phil shook his head. “Nah, I’m good. I’ve got a system down.” Phil said with a dopey smile on his face, as if Dan was the most adorable person he’d ever seen. It made something flutter in Dan’s chest.

This was his moment, he thought. _Listen to the five second rule. Count backwards from five, and take the leap._

He took a deep breath in before continuing. “Once I’m done with these books can I come sit here and read? You’re the last one in here and it’s a half hour to closing anyways.”

Phil looked confused as he looked around, adjusting his glasses as he did. “I’m the last person here?” Dan nodded. 

“Yep, a few other people left about an hour ago. Have you been here all day?” Dan asked, sitting down with his back against the shelves across from Phil. 

“I got here after my lecture ended at two so pretty much.” They sat in silence for a moment while Dan read some of A Clash of Kings and as the sound of Phil typing on his laptop filled the air. Dan liked the mood between the two of them, like they were spending time together and enjoying each other’s company without needing to fill the silence. The atmosphere was comfortable and cozy, and it reduced the world around them to just the stack of books and the two of them. 

They both lost track of time, and before they knew it they heard the door to Angela’s office slam behind the desk. The horror section wasn’t visible from the desk, and Dan internally breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t hear the lock turn in the doors of the shop. “Hey, it’s past closing time now, we should probably get going. I’ll walk you back to your place?” He said as he helped Phil stand up. Phil nodded as he winced in pain slightly and cracked his back.

“I’m getting too old for sitting on the floor that. Maybe I should take you up on your offer for a table.” 

He laughed as Phil gathered his things. “I’ll make sure Angela doesn’t know about it. Come down to the office really quick? I just need to grab my stuff and we can head out.” 

It was raining slightly when they stepped outside, a light drizzle that made the lights look misty and cast a warm glow on everything around them. Dan opened his clear umbrella and watched in amusement as Phil put the hood up on his white hoodie, trying not to disturb his hair. “Now, which way do I live from here?” Phil murmured to himself. “Ah, right, this way! Follow me,” he said, motioning to Dan. 

Dan liked the closeness between the two of them as they walked together under his tiny umbrella in the rain, the streetlights illuminating the droplets as they fell around them. They chatted about nothing important, and as they walked it seemed they drifted impossibly close together, until they were holding hands when they reached Phil’s door. “Do you uh, do you want to come upstairs with me?” Phil asked hesitantly, scuffing one of his shoes against the pavement and hunching his shoulders slightly with insecurity. His blue eyes held a tiny tinge of fear before Dan nodded. Phil’s face lit up and he took Dan’s hand again to lead him upstairs. 

Once they got into his apartment, Dan noticed that everything in it felt very Phil. There were vinyl figurines lining the shelves in the lounge, and a massive collection of DVDs and games by the TV next to the fireplace. Everything was colorful, bright and happy just like Phil was. 

“Do you drink?” Phil asked, bustling around the tiny kitchen. Dan nodded. “Okay, I only have red wine but I hope that's alright.”

Dan smiled and nodded. “That's perfect, thank you.” Dan was looking around phil’s lounge when he sat down in a grey stuffed chair, his eyes catching a framed poster for Dexter behind the TV. “Hey, I loved those books. Did you read them too?” 

“Which books?” Phil asked as his blue eyes skimmed his posters. He adjusted his glasses and Dan swore that Phil could hear the soaring of his heart from across the room. “Oh, Dexter you mean! No, I've only seen the show, I never read the books. Even though I'm a literature student I feel like I have no time to read anymore.” 

“Oh my God, the books were amazing, you have to read them. I have all ten of them if you want to borrow them sometime.” Dan said.

“Wait, there’s _ten_ Dexter books? That’s insane, Game of Thrones only has five!”

“Yeah, but think about how huge each book is in that series and then compare it to Dexter.” As Dan started babbling on about how Darkly Dreaming Dexter was second only to A Song Of Ice And Fire in his list of favorite book series, something shifted. Whether it was both their passion for reading, the wine, or something else intangible, they finished off two bottles of wine arguing about who the best character in Dexter was before Phil finally broke Dan down into watching an episode of the show. 

“You can’t compare the show and the book if you’ve never even seen the show. Come on, just let me show you one episode, I promise you’ll love it.” 

Dan laughed and nodded, getting up from the chair he was in and holding a hand out to Phil to help him up. “We can’t very well watch TV without some popcorn and tea, it’s just not right.” 

“It should be illegal,” Phil said with a dorky smile on his face that made Dan’s heart soar. He watched as Phil got a knee up on the counter to pull a jar of loose popcorn kernels out of an upper cupboard and motioned for Dan to grab a pan out of a lower one. Dan looked at him quizzically and Phil just kept smiling. “Trust me, popcorn tastes so much better when it’s popped this way. There’s oil in the cupboard next to the pans.” He slipped a little as he was getting down from the counter, and it seemed the world moved in slow motion for a moment as Dan rushed in to catch him from falling. 

They both laughed after the world sped up again, and once again, there was some kind of shift in the air from them being friendly with each other to something more. Dan couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something about this felt so _right_ that nothing else in the world seemed to matter anymore. Tomorrow could be the end of the world, but as long as Dan had Phil by his side, it would still be the best day ever for him. 

The sofa was plenty big enough for the both of them, but Phil sat back against one of the armrests and let Dan settle in his lap, throwing a blanket over the two of them once Dan was set. Whatever this was, Dan never wanted it to end. The same cozyness had traveled with them from the bookshop to Phil’s sofa in his tiny flat, and continued as they traded commentary and gentle kisses through the night. Everything was tentative, exploring, never forced or rushed. It was perfect.

The next morning, soft sunlight peeking through Phil’s bedroom window woke Dan up, and for a moment, everything was calm. All of a sudden, a surge of panic ran through Dan as he remembered that _he had work study this morning_ and _Angela was opening_ and Dan most definitely was late. His internal monologue of absolue panic wasn’t helping him as he rushed around to find his clothes, and as he tried to pull his jeans back on he tripped over and landed face-first on Phil’s carpet. Phil jolted himself awake at the sudden auditory intrusion, and in his sleepy state he put his glasses on a little crooked. Dan looked at Phil, his disheveled appearance, the glasses skewed on his face, his eyes still squinty and heavy with sleep, and realized one again that he was so beyond gone for Phil it was unreal. 

“Where are you going?” Phil asked sleepily, as he ran his hands through his hair and smiled back at Dan. 

“I’m late for work. If you want to come with me feel free, unless you have a class today?” Dan asked as he got himself up off the floor and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over to quickly give Phil a kiss. 

“It’s eight in the morning and I have a hangover, I’m sleeping in this morning. I’m too old to be getting drunk on a Tuesday with the master’s students,” Phil said, his tongue poking out at the end of his smile. 

“I’ll see you later okay?” Dan said before Phil pulled Dan in for another quick kiss. 

As Dan got up to leave, he stopped in the doorway of Phil’s bedroom and just stood there, staring at Phil for a moment. Phil was laying across the bed they’d shared the night before, a soft and sure smile on his face, as if Dan was the entire world wrapped up in a person to him. 

Dan tried his best to fix his hair and make himself look at least somewhat presentable in his clothes from yesterday as he waited at the bus stop, hoping that he could be casual when he walked into work that morning. He prayed to every deity that he could think of that Angela would be feeling lenient with him, and tried to think of yet another way to play the ‘like a second son to her’ card as he braced himself to open the door to the shop. When he swung the door open, he was surprised to be met with Jesse’s glasses and curly blonde hair peeking out from behind the desk. 

“Where’s your mum?” Dan asked, slightly out of breath from running to the bus station to Subculture.

“Well good morning, loverboy! Where were you last night?” Jesse asked with a giant smirk on his face, and Dan rolled his eyes as he walked past his friend. “Oh, come on! My mum told me that she didn’t see you for at least an hour after closing last night and you’re in the same clothes as yesterday.”

“I hate you,” Dan said quietly as he logged in on the middle computer. “But, I owe you one. Big time.” He smiled sheepishly at Jesse, who had a massive grin on his face. “I stayed over at Phil’s last night.”

“What did I tell you! The five second rule works!” His friend said, smacking him on the arm this time instead of the head. 

Dan swatted his hands away. “Okay, go easy, it wasn’t the five second rule. It was me finally getting off my ass and doing something about a hopeless crush I’ve had for over a year.”

Jesse just shook his head and turned his attention back to the computer. “Say whatever you want, but it was the five second rule. I know it. You should’ve read the book.”

“I skimmed it!” Dan said defensively, and luckily Jesse dropped the topic for the rest of the morning and left Dan alone. As he was putting some of the restocks away, Dan glanced around to make sure Jesse couldn’t see him, and grabbed a copy of The Five Second Rule off the shelf of the self development section and tucked it into the bottom of the cart. He’d cash himself out for it later that night and just hope Jesse wasn’t scheduled to do the staff purchase audit on Friday morning. 

After putting the returns away, Dan plopped himself back at the desk, shutting his eyes and rubbing his temples slightly to try and alleviate the headache that had been pulsing at the back of his head all day long. 

“What time did you end up sleeping last night? Or did you sleep at all?” Jesse asked with a wink, which Dan returned with a glare. 

“We slept, we got into bed at around four in the morning. Not all of us fuck on the first date.” Dan shut his eyes again and put his hood up, trying to muffle the sound of Catfish and the Bottlemen playing through the speakers in the shop. 

“Oh, so it _was_ a date then?” Jesse said, his voice and the wheels of the chair on the tile getting closer to Dan.

“You’re so lucky you and I grew up together, you know that? If spending a good majority of the time watching Dexter and talking about my master’s dissertation and his doctoral thesis counts as a date then sure. I have two months to finish my dissertation and Phil’s viva to defend his thesis is next week.” Dan groaned and scrubbed his face with his hands. “Just thinking about finishing makes my head hurt.” He opened his eyes and looked at Jesse again. “Although, I am hungover so that probably is what’s making my head hurt the most.”

“What have I been telling you since you started writing it? Take it in steps. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. And hey, Phil wrote one too, ask him for help writing yours. I can always help you too.”

Dan barked out a laugh. “You had to rewrite your honors college thesis four times last year before they accepted it.” 

Jesse wagged the stylus to his tablet at Dan. “But they still accepted it, didn’t they?”

Dan laughed again. “Shut up, you idiot.”

Phil never ended up coming to the bookshop that day, but he texted Dan his address and what busses to take to get there towards the middle of the day, asking for Dan to come over again that night. _We’ll get less drunk tonight_ , Phil promised, which made Dan smile. After running back to his dorm and packing an overnight bag, Dan managed to just catch the next bus to Phil’s place before it started to get dark outside.

As Dan was sitting on the bus and slightly freaking out at the slim chance that he’d taken the wrong bus, his phone buzzing in his pocket pulled him out of his thoughts. Phil’s name and photo filled the screen, and his heart quickened as he slid across and answered. “Hey, I’m on the bus from my dorm now, what’s up?” 

“What’s your favorite food?” Phil asked. “I want to get us dinner tonight.”

Dan felt his rosy patch heating up as he smiled, and thanked Phil. “Anything vegan and Indian is fine with me.”

Dan was sure that Phil’s face fell slightly. “Wait, you’re a vegan? Oh God, I don’t think I have anything-”

“Here, just tell me what you want and I can find a place near your house and bring us something. Where’s a good Indian place near you?”

“If you go to Lotus Garden and tell them to make Phil’s order they’ll know what you mean. It’s on the walk from the bus stop to my flat. My neighbor upstairs and her girlfriend are vegans too and they always order from Lotus Garden, just ask for the alternative menu and there should be something. They have my card on file, get whatever you want.”

A short half hour later, both Dan and Phil were in their pajamas on the floor of Phil’s lounge, boxes of takeaway and pages of Phil’s thesis spread out around them as Dan asked Phil some mock questions one of Phil’s professors had written up to help him defend his points as practice for his viva. The atmosphere between them was so normal, and so easy, as if they’d done this a million times. Dan didn’t understand half of the questions he was asking Phil as he read them off, but Phil answered each one so expertly that Dan felt his heart beat a little faster in his chest at each answer.

“Mister Lester, could you please explain to the panel how the arsis and thesis of historical LGBT literature and modern LGBT literature aim society towards similar acceptance of the culture, and use a specific example from your studies of the topic to state your case?” Dan asked, looking over his tortoiseshell glasses at Phil’s blue eyes shining behind his own black glasses. His eyes lit up when Dan asked the question, and he immediately picked through the pages to find the example that he was looking for. Dan only half listened as Phil compared the works of Walt Whitman to the works of Jacqueline Woodson, and somehow brought the point back around to the central point of his entire thesis.

“And that, boys and girls, is historical evidence for why the gay books are the best books,” Phil said, finishing his sentence with a bite of spicy tandoori chicken and a slight chuckle from Dan.

“You are amazing, you know that? Honestly, just...amazing.” Dan said, resting his chin on his hand and smiling at Phil. 

“Hey, don’t sell yourself too short, your dissertation for your masters is incredible. I got a chance to edit it today, just for sentence level stuff, not for content, but even if I _was_ looking for content errors, there weren’t many of them. You were required to use APA, right?” Dan nodded. “Okay good, because you did it perfectly. I couldn’t find any errors in the formatting either. We’ll be calling you Master Howell in no time.” Phil said with a laugh as he handed Dan the edited copy of his dissertation.

“I don’t think that’s how a masters works, Phil.” Dan said, as they both went to clean up their mess from the floor of the lounge. When they both stood up, Phil leaned in and pressed his lips against Dan’s, both of them sighing into the quick kiss before bringing the rest of the food into the kitchen. 

The next few days continued in the same pattern, both of them working on Phil’s defense of his thesis as Dan slowly finished his dissertation. Dan rarely slept at his own flat on campus, opting to stay with Phil instead. The day of Phil’s viva rolled around two weeks later, and Dan was able to sit in and watch Phil expertly defend his thesis to the panel of judges. They celebrated by going to Lotus Garden afterwards, and when they walked in Dan wasn’t at all surprised that everyone there knew Phil’s name and his usual order. That night was spent organizing Dan’s dissertation for review by his professor before handing it in to be graded, and luckily Angela was kind enough to give Dan the next day off to rest after such a busy day before. Dan’s day off and Phil’s first day in years without having to do something for school was spent curled up on the sofa together, watching more episodes of their favorite shows and not doing much else, just spending time together and getting used to the fact that what they’d both wanted for so long was finally happening. 

If Dan had known all that was standing in the way of his happiness would be five seconds, he would’ve counted down a long time earlier.

**Author's Note:**

> drop me a line: tumblr.com/starboydjh
> 
> buy me a coffee if you want: ko-fi.com/hadley
> 
> find an independently owned bookshop in your area: https://www.indiebound.org/indie-bookstore-finder
> 
> books and book series referenced:
> 
> \- A Song Of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin ( _Game of Thrones_ TV series)  
> \- Pet Sematary by Stephen King  
> \- The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins  
> \- Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson  
> \- Darkly Dreaming Dexter series by Jeff Lindsay ( _Dexter_ TV series)


End file.
